When Words Collide: Writing Alternate Histories

Hi, just a quick note, I will be program participant, panelists, something at the Alberta Writers and Readers Festival, When Words Collide.

I’m doing Writing Alternate Histories, with Celeste Peters, R.J.M. Dawson and M.E. Powell, at 3:00 pm, on Friday, August  13, 2021.  This year the Festival is a free online event.

The Festival is huge running from Thursday, August 12 through to Sunday, August 15, 2021.  It’s an annual thing. Usually its held live in person, and it gets pretty booked up.  Having it online and free means it’s open to everyone.

This is amazing. 12 tracks of programming going on each hour. That’s 240 programming events, plus interactive stuff, pitch sessions, blue pencil sessions, workshops, you name it.  And it’s FREE.  So register and join.

WWC 2021 – Events/Festival_Program.php (whenwordscollide.org)

And in the future, if you’re a writer or reader that plans to find themselves in Calgary in August…  make plans to check it out.

And if you’re already attending, check out my panel!  As to Alternate History, I figure I’m qualified, between Axis of Andes, Bear Cavalry, Dawn of Cthulhu, The New Doctor and the Fall of Atlantis.

So how about my co-panelists?

Celeste A. Peters is a dreamer and schemer of speculative fiction. Her work has been published in Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy’s Urban Green Man anthology, Solarwyrm’s Amok: Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction, Issue 30 of Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, and in every issue of the Enigma Front anthology series to date. She was twice a finalist in the Robyn Herrington Memorial Short Story Contest, and also received an Aurora Award nomination in 2017 as editor of the Enigma Front: Burnt anthology. Celeste resides in Calgary, Alberta, where she benefits greatly from the help and encouragement of her friends in the Imaginative Fiction Writers’ Association. Website: http://www.celestepeters.com

Robert Dawson teaches math at Saint Mary’s University in Nova Scotia. He has been writing SF and fantasy for more than ten years. His stories have appeared in Nature Futures, AE, Compelling SF, Tesseracts 20, and numerous other anthologies and periodicals. He is an alumnus of the Sage Hill and Viable Paradise writing workshops. His preferred mode of transportation is a bicycle.

Marie Powell’s adventures in castle-hopping across North Wales resulted in her award-winning historical fantasy series, Last of the Gifted. Spirit Sight (Book 1) and Water Sight (Book 2), released in 2020. Marie is the author of more than 40 children’s books, along with award-winning short stories and poetry. She holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing from UBC, among other degrees. Website: http://mariepowell.ca

Chris Patrick Carolan is an author, editor, and hovercraft enthusiast whose stories have appeared in the Enigma Front anthology series (Analemma Books, ExitZero Books), 49th Parallels: Alternative Canadian Histories and Futures (Bundoran Press), and Baby, It’s Cold Outside (Coffin Hop Press). He is Managing Editor of ExitZero Books and is currently working on revisions to his first novel, a paranormal mystery set in 1880s Halifax, Nova Scotia. You can find him on Twitter as @cpcwrites but–consider this fair warning–it’s mostly just nonsense and Simpsons memes. Website: http://www.cpcwrites.com

All these write ups are taken from the When Words Collide site.

Oh, and here’s mine…

Den (D.G. Valdron) is a speculative fiction and pop culture writer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. By day an Aboriginal Rights lawyer. By night he writes grimdark and adventure fantasy, horror, science fiction, alternative history. Nonfiction topics include Doctor Who, unauthorized film, pulp fiction, Burroughs, Lovecraft, Kaiju and is the world authority on the Canadian sci fi series LEXX. Titles include The Mermaid’s Tale (audiobook) and ebooks Bear Cavalry, Dawn of Cthulhu, Fall of Atlantis, Giant Monsters Sing Sad Songs, LEXX Unauthorized, and the Greatest Unauthorized Doctor Stories. Does not bite (much). Website: http://www.denvaldron.com